CD Review: 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Have Hearse Will Travel

Hot on the heels of Halloween comes this deluxe reissue package of Albany horror/garage misfits 1313 Mockingbird Lane's sole full-length record from 1990, plus singles and demo tracks. Copping their band name from the address of TV's the Munsters' address, the band recorded suitably cheesy/scary songs like "Dig Her Up," "Big Black Car," and the memorably titled "Bat's Milk Yogurt." A loving and furious ode to some of the more obscure '60s garage and surf grooves, Have Hearse Will Travel is chock-full of triple-time tempos, demented carnival organ, and aggressive fuzzed-and-reverbed guitar sounds.

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

The early demos and single (released before the band had played live) pale in comparison to the LP, owing mainly to the addition of drummer Marty Feier to the lineup of Haunted Hausmen (guitar, vocals), Kim 13 (Farfisa organ), and Robin Graves (bass). Having toured with Link Wray, Feier was the most experienced musician in the band, and his pounding but steady beat gives structure to the frenzied wailings of the other Mockingbirds. This remastering of the original eight-track recordings gives a razor-sharp sheen to the deliriously grubby sounds. Although essentially faithful to their mid-'60s influences, the band injects an extra dose of early '80s punk adrenaline, putting them in line with better-known contemporaries like the Gories and the Mummies. Pretty much every track is a scorcher, with an insane cover of Screaming Lord Sutch's classic "Jack the Ripper" and the bad-vibes psychedelia of "Space Ghost," among the highlights. Cacophone.com